What does the Ally keyword mean?

[Tiresias_BC 0]

 I think there must surely be a way to look this up, but I haven't found it yet.  And I've tried.

What does the keyword Ally signify?  It's in the Core Set on The Hound, but it's not explained in the core rules.

[eloooooooi 0]

It's just a Trait that interacts with many effects. For instance, Varys from King's Landing discards an Ally from play when he comes out of shadows.

[Ratatoskr 34]

TiresiasBC said:

 

 I think there must surely be a way to look this up, but I haven't found it yet.  And I've tried.

What does the keyword Ally signify?  It's in the Core Set on The Hound, but it's not explained in the core rules.

 

 

First of all, it's important to note that Ally is not a keyword, it's a trait. This is an important distinction. Keywords are Stealth, Deadly, Infamy, Vigilant, Renown etc. Those have their own rules, which are explained in the core rulebook.

Traits, however, are the words in bold and italics that are printed on the cards right under the picture. They don't mean anything by themselves.  Remember that this game is almost entirely driven by card effects. There's a lot of mechanics in this game that are not mentioned in the core rules, but are administered by card effects entirely.

So, only if a card text interacts with a trait, it becomes significant. An example would be the Direwolf trait. By itself, it means nothing. Only when a card effect interacts with it, like the ones on Kennel Master, or Winterfell Kennels, it becomes significant.

There's no card in the core set that interacts with the Ally trait, so you can safely ignore this particular trait if you only play with the core set.  There are cards in the expansions that do interact with it, though, like this one, so it becomes relevant when you start playing with or against those cards.

[Twn2dn 1]

Yeah, the Ally trait doesn't really mean anything on its own. Most traits don't. Sometimes traits are added just for flavor...for example, Old Nan (Battle of Ruby Ford chapter pack) is a "Story Teller." The Story Teller trait doesn't interact with any other cards that I'm aware of and isn't likely to in the future. Traits also help to further define a particular card into something more specific than by house. For example, Benjen Stark and Shae are both neutral (no house affiliation) characters, but they aren't exactly working for the same cause.

Other traits, like Ally, Mercenary, Lord/Lady, Direwolf, etc. are a bit more common and certainly more meaningful. They still don't mean anything on their own, but there are more cards that interact with these traits. For example, the Bodyguard attachment can't be played on just any character, it's restricted to Lords/Ladies. Like Ratatoskr said, Winterfell Kennels is a great card for a Direwolf deck, as is Wolf Dreams (from the Lords of Winter expansion).

In general, Ally is considered a negative trait, in that it has vulnerabilities to card effects like Varys (Secrets and Spies chapter pack) and Arys (Princes of the Sun expansion). If your opponent doesn't play with Varys or Arys though, the Ally trait isn't a vulnerability at all. Mercenary is mixed...sometimes the mercenary trait works to your advantage (for example, with Gold Cloaks from the A Time of Trials chapter pack), and others the mercenary trait is a liability (Arys' effect can discard mercenaries, for example). Lord/Lady are almost always more positive traits to have. Others like Direwolf, Dragon, Army, etc. have less benefits/liabilities but are important to consider when constructing a trait-themed deck of your own.

[Tiresias_BC 0]

 Thanks for the quick responses!

I was preparing to have some friends over to try out the Core Set for the first time, and I wanted to be ready if something came up.

Not sure if I'll go the hardcore route or simply play the Core Set as a game in itself yet, but I had a lot of fun despite being utterly destroyed.

Again, thanks for the help.